CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

364 MEN AND WOMEN
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II Were you happy? "_" Yes."-" And are you still as
happy? "_" Yes-And you? "
-" Then more kisses "_" Did I stop them, when a
million seemed so few? "
Hark-the dominant's persistence, till it must be answered
to I
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So an octave struck the answer. Oh, they praised you, I
dare say I
" Brave Galuppi I that was music I good alike at grave
and gay I
I can always leave off talking, when I hear a master play."
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Then they left you for their pleasure: till in due time,
one by one,
Some with lives that came to nothing, some with deeds
as well undone,
Death came tacitly and took them where they never see
the sun.
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But when I sit down to reason,-think to take my stand
nor swerve
Till I triumph o'er a secret wrung from nature's close
reserve,
In you come with your cold music, till I creep thro' every
nerve,
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Yes, you, like a ghostly cricket, creaking where a house
was burned-
" Dust ana. ashes, dead and done with, Venice spent what
Venice earned I
The soul, doubtless, is immortal-where a soul can be
discerned.
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"Yours for instance, you know physics, something of
geology,
Mathematics are your pastime; souls shall rise in their
degree;
Butterflies may dread extinction,-you'll not die, it cannot
bel
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